Implementation – How will we achieve this…

"Tell me and I will forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn” (Benjamin Franklin).

Our Pre-School at Bishop Aldhelm’s is committed to preparing each individual child for their future, by nurturing the development of the whole child and making them an integral part of our amazing school community. We are passionate about making a difference to the well-being and education of children in our care, therefore, providing an outstanding team of key workers and an Early Years teacher to draw upon the knowledge and experience of staff already in our school; truly creating a unique pre-school.

We believe learning through play is vital and our purpose-built establishment is designed for our children to become immersed in practical, first-hand learning experiences with the opportunity to develop through exploration, enjoyment and autonomy. With the indoor and outdoor environments equally important, the children will learn through continuous provision and enhanced provision from all their surroundings. We are very fortunate to have such a stimulating outdoor setting with our extensive school grounds, a SSSI, heathland and lovely local community visits on our door step.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our relationships. We understand that when we develop a genuine relationship with a child that we can obtain a deep understanding of their individual learning needs and true passions. Our early years educators start by becoming a learning companion and seeing the world through the child’s eyes. Through play, the educator and children work together to find solutions to problems, make sense of concepts, extend stories or evaluate activities. Both adult and child contribute to the thinking, which develops and extends using existing understanding. This ‘co-educator’ and ‘co-researcher’ approach supports synaptic growth (long-term memory) and creates powerful learners and problem-solvers.

The strategies used by the educator include open questioning, role or social play and role modelling. The interactive dialogue and communication can aid, develop and support; language acquisition, vocabulary, symbolic representation skills, articulation and expression. It also importantly develops self-confidence, independence and curiosity, which empower children to learn. We recognise that language and communication are vital in all areas of a child’s development and provide a rich language environment, where conversations, singing and sharing stories also become a regular part of the children’s day.

Our bespoke child-centred approach to planning allows your child to delve further into existing interests, discover new curiosities and develop their creativity and imagination, thus developing interpersonal skills, building resilience and becoming critical thinkers. It starts by taking the individual interests of the child and placing it at the centre, then branching out and planning a complete range of activities, quality real-life experiences and interactions, linked to the 7 areas of learning and development. These experiences provide a secure and memorable foundation for all children as well as embed a positive disposition towards life-long learning.

At Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-School we pride ourselves on ensuring that we provide children in our community with the best possible positive start to their school learning journey. With our school values (Love, Unity, Courage and Inspiration) at the core of our provision/characteristics of effective learning; this promotes a child’s achievement, confidence, independence and helps them to become well rounded wholesome characters. Our children and staff genuinely feel ‘Loved by God, United in Learning’. 

What we offer your child: 

• Fun, stimulating activities and provision that relates to each child’s next steps and interests
• Individual care and attention made possible by a high ratio of highly qualified staff to children
• Nurturing and caring staff, we are always available for a cuddle!
• A key person that has been carefully chosen through an early recognised special bond
• An enabling environment indoors and out. Children will have access to our nursery garden every session
• Links to the main school to support your child with transition should you chose for your child to continue their learning journey with us

Our Curriculum

Teaching in the EYFS is delivered in accordance with the government’s statutory document ’The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2020)’. This document is a principled approach to Early Years education, bringing together children’s welfare, learning and development requirements through four themes: ‘A Unique Child’, ‘Positive Relationships’, ‘Enabling Environments’ and ‘Children Learn in Different Ways and at Different Rates.’

At the heart of the curriculum sits the Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL),

The characteristics help us to see when children are learning. Put simply, they tell us that children are learning when they are:

• Engaged
• Motivated
• Thinking

In planning and guiding children’s activities, practitioners must reflect on the different ways that children learn and reflect these in their practice. Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:

• Playing and exploring – Children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’.
• Active learning – Children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements.
• Creating and thinking critically – Children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

The EYFS curriculum is centred on three prime areas of learning:

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development

Providers must also support activities through four specific areas which strengthen the prime areas. These are:  

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

These Areas of Learning and Development address children’s physical, cogitative, linguistic, social and emotional development. No one aspect of development stands in isolation from the others as all Areas of Learning and Development are all closely

interlinked. This ensures the delivery of a holistic, child-centred curriculum which allows children to make lots of links between what they are learning. All Areas of Learning and Development are given equal weighting and value.

We recognise that language and communication are vital in all areas of a child’s development. We welcome children from culturally diverse backgrounds and are experienced at supporting learners who are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language (EAL). Communication and language development are therefore a constant focus. We support children’s development by providing a rich language environment, where conversations, singing and sharing stories become a regular part of the children’s day.

Our pre-school focuses on developing a child’s early phonics through phase 1 and into phase 2 of letters and sounds.  Phase 1 is divided into 7 aspects:-

Aspect 1 - General sound discrimination - environmental

The aim of this aspect is to raise children's awareness of the sounds around them and to develop their listening skills.

Aspect 2 - General sound discrimination - instrumental sounds

This aspect aims to develop children's awareness of sounds made by various instruments and noise makers.

Aspect 3 - General sound discrimination - body percussion

The aim of this aspect is to develop children's awareness of sounds and rhythms.

Aspect 4 - Rhythm and rhyme

This aspect aims to develop children's appreciation and experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech.

Aspect 5 - Alliteration

The focus is on initial sounds of words, with activities including I-Spy type games and matching objects which begin with the same sound.

Aspect 6 - Voice sounds

The aim is to distinguish between different vocal sounds and to begin oral blending and segmenting.

Aspect 7 - Oral blending and segmenting
In this aspect, the main aim is to develop oral blending and segmenting skills.

At Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-school, whilst we read a wide variety of stories with the children, we also have a set list of 10 books that can be re-visited again and again, on different levels to support language development and understanding.. The idea is that children will develop language and increase vocabulary in addition to gaining a love of books and will become very familiar with these known texts so that they can remember and retell them. Our core books are:

The Tiny Seed

Supertato

The 3 little pigs

Stickman

Zog

Goldilocks and the three bears

Journey

Owl babies

Monkey Puzzle

We’re going on a bear hunt

We also have ‘core rhymes’ which support language development. Children chant or sing the rhymes at group and carpet times. By the time the children leave nursery they are familiar with each core rhyme. Our core rhymes are:

Incy Wincy Spider

Mary Mary quite Contrary

Hickory Dickory Dock

Jack and Gill

Row, Row, Row your boat

The Wheels on the bus

Wind the bobbin up

The sailor went to sea

One, two buckle my shoe

Tiny Turtle

Cultural Capital

The term "cultural capital" was popularised by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who proposed that it refers to everything from tastes to manners, knowledge of the arts, economy, the world, communication skills and social skills. The more cultural capital a person has, the greater their chance of social mobility.

The catchment area for our school is very diverse. Our aim is to address social disadvantage and, as a result, our curriculum reflects the school’s local context by addressing typical gaps in our pupils’ knowledge and skills.  We also actively encourage children to share their culture and heritage with each other so that we can grow and learn from one another.

Research shows that there is a direct link between levels of deprivation and children’s language skills. This can lead to difficulties when comprehending and inferring from texts, and when writing with understanding and creativity.  It is therefore crucial that as well as being taught essential knowledge and skills, our pupils are taught explicit and engaging vocabulary across the curriculum to ensure all children have the language they need to fully access their future learning.

Our EYFS curriculum outlines the vocabulary, knowledge and skills that pupils need that will in turn enable them to take advantage of opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.  There is a difference between knowledge which will be retained close to the point of teaching it, and that which will be retained forever. Our curriculum contains essential 'sticky knowledge' (embedded) that will be needed in order to access the next years objectives  i.e. the end points in each subject that pupils need to know and be able to do, in a logical progression.  Hence our EYFS  curriculum is planned and sequenced so that children are ready for their KS1 experience.  

Our day at Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-School:

The staff in our Pre-School work closely with our Foundation team. As a result, Pre-School children are introduced to concepts that they will also come across in Foundation, for example phonics - Letters and Sounds and printed letter shapes.

The Pre-School and Foundation team work as a department, planning and sharing learning ideas together.

There is continuity in our Early Years environment which supports the children with their transition from Pre-School to Foundation.

We strongly believe that young children learn through play as well as through experiences which capture their imaginations.

During each session, the children will:

• Investigate and explore an activity which develops their fine motor skills.
• Participate in a group phonics activity which is linked to Letters and Sounds.
• Have the opportunity to explore the inside and outside environment during child initiated activities.
• Take part in singing rhymes and songs.
• Share stories with the other children in the setting, often with the use of drama.
• Participate in an adult led activity in a small group. This could be a shared writing activity, creating story maps, completing an activity with a mathematical focus or even cooking.
• Have the opportunity to cut up and prepare their snack.

Opening Times:

All children are entitled to 15 funded hours from the start of the term after their third birthday. Each of our sessions last for 3 hours and the 15 hours can be used across either 5 morning or 5 afternoon sessions, subject to availability. Children with 30 hour funding attend 5 full days per week. As we are a pre-school with a defined program of learning our expectation is that children attend 5 days per week however, when they first start we are aware that some children may need to build up to this over the first term.

Your child is welcome to attend the pre-school for more than 15 hours per week and extra sessions are charged at £17.10 per session, subject to availability.

Payment is made via our online payment system - My Child At School (MCAS)

The pre-school is open term-time 39 weeks a year (excluding INSET days), Monday to Friday.

Session times are as follows…

8.30am - 11.30am (15 Hours Universal Funded Hours)

12.30pm - 3.30pm (15 Hours Universal Funded Hours)

9am - 3pm (30 Hours Extended & Universal Funded Hours)

Children can attend either 5 full days or 5 half days (all mornings or all afternoons) each week. 

To check to see if you can claim 30 hours free childcare per week, click here

Additional hours can be purchased at the following rates (payable in advance, subject to availability)…

Whole Morning Session - 8:30 - 11:30 (if not funded) - £17.10

Whole Afternoon  Session - 12:30 - 3:30 (if not funded) - £17.10

Lunch Hour (if not funded) 11.30am - 12.30pm - £5.70

Outside of these hours, parents will be able to access the schools wrap around care (Lookout Club) subject to availability.

7.45am - 8.45am - Breakfast Club 

3.30pm - 5.15pm - After School 

 See our page for full details. Please note Pre-school children are not able to stay in afterschool club after 5:15pm.

Tax-Free Childcare

Details of the government Tax-Free Childcare scheme to help with the cost of childcare is available on their website here.

Holiday cover – Kidscape

Kidscape holiday clubs run every school holiday for children aged 3 to 12. The activity day runs from 7.30 am to 6.00pm, with the option to book shorter day.

The focus for Kidscape holiday club is about having as much FUN as possible. There is a varied programme of activities on offer such as Kick-Boxing, Cooking, Clay Moulding, Painting, Water Play, Messy Play, Trips and excursions, and the huge variety of activities on offer should suit both the sporty and more creative child.

Their programme of activity changes daily, even throughout the long summer holiday, and with a team of highly qualified and suitably trained staff at each venue, they are fully confident your child will always have a time to remember at Kidscape holiday club.

The Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-School team consists of experienced, fully qualified and passionate professionals, who have a wide range of childcare qualifications. Each team member is trained in paediatric first aid and have undertaken a recent, enhanced DBS check.

Our staff will maintain developmental records for every child, this will show the progress made throughout their time at Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-School. We will hold termly meetings with parents to discuss progress and your child’s development.

The staff in our Pre-school

• Preschool PS Mrs Brennan & Mrs Light

Settling in:

Prior to starting we encourage parents to come in with their child for one or two settling in sessions. This is to enable the child to become familiar with staff, other children and the environment before starting. Parents/carers will also be given our ‘Online Learning Journal’ agreement form and an ‘All About Me’ form to complete ready for when the child starts.

Food:

Snacks are included within the daily fees for each session, these consist of fruit and vegetables. A choice of milk or water is available at snack time and children have access to water at all times during the day. Please provide a named water bottle daily. 

If you wish for your child to receive milk at snack times, please sign up to Cool Milk using the link below to allow us to provide free milk;

Resources – Cool Milk

Children may bring a packed lunch or order a hot school meal through Chartwells, our school meal provider. All pre-school children eat their lunch together in the pre-school irrespective of which lunch option they choose. Hot school meals must be ordered in advance through our school meal provider - see the hot meals page of our website.

Key Workers:

Your child will have a Key Person who is responsible for ensuring your child has a smooth transition to pre-school. The Key Person will also be responsible for planning for your child’s next steps, interests and discussing your child’s development with you. All members of Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-School staff work very closely with each other and know all of the children well, it may not be your child’s Key Person handing over to you every day.

Parent Partnership:

Working with parents/carers is really important to us. We will keep parents updated with key dates, events and news through a termly Newsletter, text, emails and via our online learnign journal. We have an open door policy for parents and staff will always provide a daily handover. Parents evenings will run in line with whole school policy with three reporting opportunities throughout the academic year.

Our school Links:

Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-School is very much a part of the school and we will be spending time in the school library, hall, music room and range of outside areas including the SSSI and our heath school area. We will also be spending time in the Reception classes to get to know the teachers and classrooms. This really helps with transition when the children go to school.

Uniform:

Children who attend our Pre-School wear our school PE kit uniform everyday. This consists of the school's red sweatshirt (logo optional), red polo shirt, grey or black jogging bottoms/leggings and red shorts in the summer.

Children must wear trainers with velcro fastening so that they can be taken off and put back on independently.  They will also need a pair of wellies, hat and gloves in the winter and sun hat in the summer. All clothing needs to be carefully labelled.

Bishop Aldhelm’s will provide protective clothing for the children when they take part in messy activities.

The pre-school encourages children to gain the skills which help them to be independent and look after themselves. These include taking themselves to the toilet and taking off – and putting on – outdoor clothes. Clothing which is easy for them to manage will help them to do this. All clothing should be clearly named.

Please see the link below if you wish to order school uniform PE kit with logos;

Mapac - Schoolwear, Workwear, Sportswear, Promotional Products or Art Supplies. Quality, innovation and value since 1955

What to bring:

• A named water bottle (water only please, no squash)
• A change of clothes and spare pants/socks. These are not only for accidents but also if a child gets wet during water play or a spillage!
• Nappies/pull up’s and wipes (if needed). If your child is toilet training, please bring lots of spare pants and changes of clothes.
• Named wellie boots
• A named waterproof coat
• Clearly named sun cream in the hot weather and a sun hat
• In the winter please bring in a named hat, gloves and scarf
• A named rucksack to keep their belongings on their peg (please only keep this at pre-school on the days/sessions that your child is in)

Safeguarding at Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-School:

We are dedicated to the welfare and protection of our children and if an occasion does arise where we need to speak to you about your child, please understand that their safety and happiness is our top priority. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Choosing the best pre-school for your child can be stressful, here are some FAQs – answered

Snack Time

We offer the children a daily variety of fruit and vegetables, as well as milk or water to drink. If your child has any special dietary needs please speak to a member of staff. When ordering milk from www.coolmilk.com our class name is PRS.

Special Needs

Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-School will, wherever possible, accommodate children with special needs. Each case will be assessed individually taking into consideration the child’s needs, staff ratio, amenities and the effect on the group as a whole.

Discipline

We have very few rules in pre-school. Those that we do have are based on health, safety and consideration for others. When we ask a child not to do something, we try to explain why their behaviour is not acceptable. We are always consistent so that the children soon feel secure and confident. In this way, we encourage the development of self-discipline. If a child is persistently disruptive or aggressive towards others, we use a ‘thinking tree’ as a strategy to allow the child to reflect on their actions.

Nappy Changing Policy

We realise and accept that the stages of a child’s development vary when they attend pre-school. Some children may still be in nappies or trainer pants. We politely ask that the following policy be adhered to:

* We expect all children, wherever possible, to arrive at pre-school in a clean nappy.

* During the preschool day, individual needs of the children will be met and children with nappies will be checked throughout the day. We will use our own equipment and nappies unless these are provided by parents/carers.

Personal Possessions

Please discourage your child from bringing their own toys or items into pre-school that are not needed. They can easily get lost or broken and we wouldn’t want this to upset your child.

Photography Policy

The staff are required to take photographs of the children to evidence their learning. These will be used appropriately for use in their personal ‘Learning Journeys’ online. We have a Facebook account and again permission will be required from parents before we ‘post’ any images showing what the children have been doing. No photograph will be taken of a child whose parent/carer has not already given their consent by signing the relevant section of the parent contract.

Sunscreen Policy

All parents are required to apply sunscreen, when appropriate, before leaving their child at pre-school. During warmer weather, we ensure children are not in the direct sunlight for long periods of time. We adjust our time spent in the open outdoor environment according to the weather that day and ask that children bring sun hats to wear too. We have a lovely big sheltered decking area so the children can still get outside in all weathers. However, if parents do not apply sunscreen, Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-School will not be held responsible, so please do ensure that sunscreen is applied as a precaution.

Please see the download section below for copies of all the forms you need in relation to our pre-school.

CLICK HERE to register for a place at our Pre-school

Pre-school contact details:-

To email the teaching  team - preschool@bishopaldhelms.poole.sch.uk

If your query relates to funding, invoices or admissions, please contact the pre-school office - preschooladmin@bishopaldhelms.poole.sch.uk

Phone us- 01202 715100

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask a member of the Bishop Aldhelm’s Pre-School team.